It’s amazing how much of our talking and social interacting we do during meal times. Meals can be celebratory, every day, romantic, confrontational, tense, awkward….

You’ve probably worked it out by now that this month I’d like you to write a story (200 words or more) about a meal time. It can be a party, a date or just a mundane breakfast time. Just remember that often people’s food choices and the way they physically act at the table can tell us as much as what they say. You’ll earn 20 beans for completing this prompt as well as it counting towards the chance to snag our shiny Quill and Ink award.

There is no deadline as such for these prompts but if you’d like it to count towards your chance of earning the award for a specific year, we’ll need it by the end of that school year. If you’re comfortable sharing, then post below. If not, email your story to us via hol.bookclub @ gmail.com (without the spaces). Oh and remember it’s a good idea to check through your piece carefully for spelling and grammatical errors as they make it harder for people to properly enjoy your work.

"Does the Walker choose the path or the path the walker?" -Garth Nix
(Av/sig by Amy!)

I scooted my tray along the railing, choosing different things to eat. Oh, good, they have spaghetti today! And pizza! I'm feeling particularly hungry so grab a couple of pieces of pizza from under the glass covers. I guess I better eat some green stuff too. Tasha gets so snarky when she sees that all I have is carbs and fizzing drinks on my tray. That isn't so bad, though, because I see that my favorite roast asparagus is available! Sometimes it is great living in a farming community. Except when it's cauliflower. I don't like cauliflower.

Someone bumped me. "Daydreaming again, Head-In-Clouds?"

"Hiya, Nick." I smiled, while snagging a hefty amount of asparagus. Hey! I was late getting in line so if folks left them, they were mine for the taking. "What'cha got going today?"

"I've got an experiment going, about combining the sulfuric acid components with sucrose and see what happens but I'm using a different kind of sucrose than regular sugar because I'm wanting to see if I can have the carbonized tube be red instead of black. So far it's not doing anything but the usual -- and smelling delicious. Well, delicious if you ignore the sulfur smell ..."

"Ah," I replied intelligently. Then the bell rang. "But isn't that ... OH you are talking about ... why you want to do that?"

"I'm thinking that this is a way to promote the infusion of ...." and Nick went off into a lengthy spiel about how he wants to create a new kind of colouring component which people can make for themselves which is not toxic and has a lasting effect on different materials, including cotton and wool. He mentioned some other trials he'd made, with other ingredients.

Artie, on the other side of me, had been listening in. "Did you try to add in some charcoal?" he asked. Nick nodded, sadly. "Yeah, that's when it blew up in my face."

Artie laughed. "Is that why your whiskers look a little charred?"

Nick scowled, his furry eyebrows angling down over his eyes in a dangerous manner. "My whiskers are just fine... " he said, and stomped off to a table with his tray of food, his tail sweeping the ground in an outraged manner.

I glared at Artie, who was quietly snickering to himself. "You know that they just grew back after the last time. Why did you do that?"

Artie quietly picked up the last piece of cherry pie from under the glass covers. "This, my dear. I wanted it!"

Once there was a little boy ghost named Jimmy West. He was all alone with no one to play with. Then one day a family of three moved into the house. There was Alice the mother, Peter the father, and a little girl named Alice who was about Jimmy’s age. However, this family did not know that there was a ghost living in their house with them, until one Halloween night when Luna had a party and invited some friends over.

Jimmy heard the kids having a fun time and wanted to join them. So, he went downstairs to the living room, where the kids were having fun playing board games and eating pizza and cupcakes. Jimmy floated over to one group of kids and asked them, “Would you mind if I played with you?” Slowly one of the children turned their heads and when they saw Jimmy he screamed, “G…G…G…GHOST.” Then the rest of the children saw Jimmy and ran out of the house.

After this no one ever wanted to come over to Alice’s house or play with her. However, Alice and Jimmy became fast friends, and Alice lived in that house until the day that she past away too. Then she lived there as a ghost with Jimmy and even had a ghost wedding and married him.

I had always found it strange each night when I came home to fix dinner for my boyfriend and me that he often would not be hungry. He would give me excuses such as he they had a meal at work or that he had so much to catch up on he simply didn't have time to spare to eat. Other times he would grab some food and then say he had to run an errand and he would it on the way. It was lonely always eating dinner by myself, so I brought it up to him one night about how I wished we could have a meal together sometime. He promised me tonight that we would do so.

So I got home from my classes and prepared something to eat. He eventually came in from his job, and I could tell he looked very nervous. I asked what was wrong, and he said it was nothing. A lot of stress at work. We set the table together then sat down. He looked oddly at the food, so I asked, "Am I really that bad of a cook that you have to find excuses to not eat what I make?"

"No, not at all. It has nothing to do with that. See?" Once he said that, he took a bite of the meal. He tried so hard to keep his face straight, but I could tell there was something wrong there.

I laughed at him. "It's okay. You can tell me that my cooking is awful. Next time I'll just buy something from the store and bring it home already made."

Next thing I knew, he stood up from the table and came behind me, embracing me gently while I sat in my chair before giving me a kiss on my head. "Honestly, I'm sure it's great. It's difficult to explain, that's all. Do you still love me?"

"I should be asking you that," I replied.

He smiled. "I will love you forever."

I smiled back. "Then there's no reason to worry because I feel the same."

And from then on, we kept with our regular routine of him eating elsewhere, but he sat with me while I ate and we talked about our days like any couple might do. The silly things one learns about another when they're together all the time can be fun indeed.

Shiloh Adlar, Seventh Year"Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world." -Voltaire